CHAPTER VIII
THE PILGRIM BEHOLDS THE STATE OF MATRIMONY
(The Preparation to this State is toilsome and anxious.)
And they lead me forward, and bring me to a street where, they said, married people lived, and they said also that the fashion of this delightful life would be pleasing unto me. And behold, there was a gate which, as they said, was called Betrothment; in front of it there was a wide square, in which crowds of people of both sexes walked about, and each one looked into the eyes of the other; and not only this, but they also looked at one another's ears, nose, teeth, neck, tongue, hands, feet, and other limbs; also did each measure the other—how tall, how broad, how stout, or how slender he was. Then one approached another, and then again stepped apart from him, examining him now in front, now from the back, now from the right side, now from the left, and observing everything that he beheld of him. Each one particularly examined (and this I saw most frequently) the bags, purses, and pouches of the other, measuring and weighing how long, how broad, how full, how heavy, or how light they
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